Sunday, 20 January 2013

TSA to phase out Rapiscan 'naked scanners'

TSA to phase out Rapiscan 'naked scanners'

The
US aviation security agency will stop screening travellers with
scanners that show travellers' naked images, amid widespread privacy
complaints.

Scanner maker Rapiscan had been ordered to make its software function without screeners having to view naked images.

But Rapiscan was to be unable to meet a June deadline to make
the updates, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said.

The kit is to be replaced with scanners that show hidden objects on an avatar.

"TSA has strict requirements that all vendors must meet for
security effectiveness and efficiency," the agency said in a statement.

Separately to the privacy concerns, some health officials
feared the Rapiscan 1000SP scanner, which uses low-level X-rays to
generate the image viewed by screeners, might expose passengers to
unsafe levels of radiation.

Under the arrangement with the TSA, Rapiscan will remove all
174 scanners from US airports at its own expense, the Los Angeles Times
reported, representing about half of the scanners in use.

Rapiscan parent company OSI Systems said ending the TSA contract would cost it about $2.7 million (1.7 million).

"We are pleased to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement
with the TSA," OSI Systems President and Chief Executive Officer Deepak
Chopra said in a statement.

"We have had a close working relationship with TSA and its
predecessor agencies for the better part of two decades, during which
time we have together pioneered many of the transportation security
technologies in use today."

The Rapiscan machines will be replaced by scanners made by
L-3 Communications Holdings that use radio waves to detect suspicious
objects hidden underneath clothes. Those display warnings on an avatar
rather than show a naked image of the passenger.